Re: Red Dwarf series 9 (or is it 10?) in 2012 confirmed by Craig Charl

There were some good bits in BTE, the whole wasn't good though. The scene with them zooming in to a photo was brilliant. The scene with Lister meeting Craig Charles was also good. But for the most part it just didn't work.

So is 'Back to Earth' any good? It's the only Red Dwarf I haven't seen, and I was just curious if it was worth the 20 bucks Amazon is asking for it.

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On a scale of one to five, where one is the godawful Nick Frost sitcom Hyperdrive and five is Red Dwarf at its best, Back To Earth probably manages a two. Not terrible as such, just something of a misfire and a substantial disappointment.

Re: Red Dwarf series 9 (or is it 10?) in 2012 confirmed by Craig Charl

^

Actually, as pitched it seemed like a good idea; a substitute for Red Dwarf itself, maybe. In our imagination it promised to recapture some of what made Red Dwarf good. In actuality, not the slightest sniff of it.

Re: Red Dwarf series 9 (or is it 10?) in 2012 confirmed by Craig Charl

I saw ten minutes of Hyperdrive once. Now, I'm one of the people that thinks that the eight series run of Red Dwarf is pretty good from beginning to end (and series VII is my favorite), but those are ten minutes of my life that I'll never have back. How could Nick Frost and sf comedy go so horribly wrong?

So is 'Back to Earth' any good? It's the only Red Dwarf I haven't seen, and I was just curious if it was worth the 20 bucks Amazon is asking for it.

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It's hit and miss. The story has some great homages to a certain famous SF film (I won't spoil), and we also get to see a pre-Two and a Half Men Sophie Winkleman in a key role. It also gets really meta for a good chunk of it.

If you are familiar with the series, it's a hoot (I'm trying not to spoil here) though the lack of a live audience is a detriment. But it's not a place to come in on the ground floor - get one or more of the other seasons first.

It does have the added benefit of being the only Red Dwarf "season" available on Blu-ray (you won't see the others done that way because they're all videotaped except for the shot-on-film Series VII).

Re: Red Dwarf series 9 (or is it 10?) in 2012 confirmed by Craig Charl

Well I watched it today and it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. In fact I think it was better than all of Series 8. Then again, I didn't care for that one cause I didn't like the fact that the crew was back on Red Dwarf, nor did I care for the fact that Rimmer was made human, even though they went a long way to make him Rimmer, he wasn't "our" Rimmer (If that made sense).

I'm also glad they came up with a clever explanation for why they were on Earth with Red Dwarf as a tv show, for a while there I thought they were simply going to go with the explanation that the Dwarfers really were fictional, though I guess I should have known better than that.

Was there any reason Chloe Annet had such a small part in the show? Was she off filming something else? Or perhaps they really did want to set up a potential story arc for Lister in a future series at the time they wrote it.

Was there any reason Chloe Annet had such a small part in the show? Was she off filming something else? Or perhaps they really did want to set up a potential story arc for Lister in a future series at the time they wrote it.

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I think it might be explained in the DVD commentary or something. Presumably she'd moved on and wasn't that interested in doing a full-length return. Take it for what it's worth, but the IMDb shows a 5-year gap in her TV and film acting work before Back to Earth, so maybe she'd stepped away from the business or was concentrating on the stage.

Plus it did work well for the overall story. Last I heard (someone PLEASE correct me if this is wrong) she isn't involved in the new series either, but again I may be dead wrong.

I was more bugged by the complete absence of Holly. It felt like he should have been there at least briefly.

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Norman Lovett made a prat of himself over it. They couldn't afford it on the budget they had. Even a lot of the CG was provided for free by fans, I believe. But he went online slagging the whole lot of them off over it and over the failed movie, so I doubt he'll be back.

I saw ten minutes of Hyperdrive once. Now, I'm one of the people that thinks that the eight series run of Red Dwarf is pretty good from beginning to end (and series VII is my favorite), but those are ten minutes of my life that I'll never have back. How could Nick Frost and sf comedy go so horribly wrong?

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Meh, Hyperdrive is a pale ripoff of BBC Radio 4's The Spaceship, which features the exact same set up, only you know, funny.

I was more bugged by the complete absence of Holly. It felt like he should have been there at least briefly.

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Norman Lovett made a prat of himself over it. They couldn't afford it on the budget they had. Even a lot of the CG was provided for free by fans, I believe. But he went online slagging the whole lot of them off over it and over the failed movie, so I doubt he'll be back.

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What about Hattie? They could be forced to use an archived version of Holly.

I was more bugged by the complete absence of Holly. It felt like he should have been there at least briefly.

Click to expand...

Norman Lovett made a prat of himself over it. They couldn't afford it on the budget they had. Even a lot of the CG was provided for free by fans, I believe. But he went online slagging the whole lot of them off over it and over the failed movie, so I doubt he'll be back.

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What about Hattie? They could be forced to use an archived version of Holly.

Edit: Never mind, I just Googled her. A shame, she was at least as funny as Holly as Norman.